A little something that is worldwide clean and all at a fraction of the cost of the dirty fossils subsidies:


UK centre to shoot for nuclear fusion record

The Jet experiment in Oxfordshire was opened in 1984 to understand fusion - the process that powers the Sun.

Prof Steve Cowley told the BBC a go-ahead to run Jet at maximum power would allow scientists to try for the record by the end of the decade. This could bring Jet up to the coveted goal of "breakeven" where fusion yields as much energy as it consumes.

Fusion is markedly different from current nuclear power, which operates through splitting atoms - fission - rather than squashing them together as occurs in fusion...

... it remains an attractive prospect because it can yield a near limitless supply of clean energy...

... Jet (Joint European Torus) was the prototype for Iter and over its extended lifetime will effectively carry out a dress rehearsal for that much bigger reactor, which will aim to demonstrate the scientific viability of fusion power at scale.

Prof Cowley also hopes to use the additional five years to train up young scientists who could eventually take their expertise to ITER...



All on our only one planet,
Martin

right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers Koch Brothers And ALEC Expand Fight On Clean Energy Users


Solar suppressors like ALEC and right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers Koch Brothers


recently claimed victory in Oklahoma, where Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law a bill that


would allow utilities to charge customers who generate electricity from home rooftop solar panels or small wind turbines.

The bill lets electric utilities apply to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to establish a higher base customer charge for users of rooftop solar or small wind turbines.

The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an influential lobbying group composed of Republican politicians and big businesses, is in the middle of the state- and local-level clean energy disputes that are currently evolving almost as quickly as the solar and wind technologies themselves. ALEC, known for advancing corporate interests, is aligned with the Koch brothers in the current heated exchange — how to make distributed solar power look bad.

Solar power is growing rapidly across the U.S., with capacity up an astounding 418 percent in the last four years alone. This has given rise to two primary policy-level debates: how much renewable power utilities are required to use, known as Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), and figuring out the logistics of net metering, which guarantees homeowners or businesses with solar panels on their roofs the right to sell any excess electricity back into the power grid.

The Los Angeles times has recently been reporting out a story about how the Koch brothers are trying to roll back these solar initiatives across the country:

“The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and some of the nation’s largest power companies have backed efforts in recent months to roll back state policies that favor green energy. The conservative luminaries have pushed campaigns in Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona, with the battle rapidly spreading to other states.”

ALEC, which has referred to homeowners with their own solar panels as “freeriders on the system,” is deeply involved in both combating renewable energy mandates and modeling legislation that targets net metering. Last year alone, ALEC pushed more than 70 bills in 37 states that would have impeded clean energy growth. While ALEC was highly unsuccessful at actually passing anti-clean energy bills it advanced at the state level last year, a new document obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy reveals the intensity that ALEC is bringing to 2014 in its anti-environmental efforts — which include not just stifling clean energy, but opposing EPA coal regulations related to public health, promoting the Keystone XL pipeline, and working toward industry-friendly fracking rules.

The spreadsheet from March, 2014 lays out 131 bills that ALEC is tracking — even though ALEC has claimed that it doesn’t track its model legislation. According to analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, eleven of the bills attempt to amend net metering laws. Currently 43 states and the District of Columbia have net metering policies. Thirty-one of the bills relate to renewable energy production, with 29 states and the District of Columbia currently employing some form of RPS.

“An entire section was devoted to tracking renewable energy legislation, which suggests that this is still a top priority for ALEC in 2014 following their near total failure in 2013,” Nick Surgey, Director of Research for the Center for Media and Democracy, told ThinkProgress. “The number of bills in this document shows that, as toxic a brand as ALEC is becoming, it is still highly effective at getting the big polluters agenda introduced in the states.”

One example of this comes in Arizona, where the Los Angeles Times reports “a tangle of secret donors and operatives with ties to ALEC and the Kochs invested millions to persuade state regulators to impose a monthly fee of $50 to $100 on net-metering customers.”

While ALEC might be doing the dirty work on clean energy, the fossil fuel industry is the one calling the shots, and filling the coffers. This is what makes it so cynical for ALEC to claim to be defending the free market while at the same time trying to punish solar users who have found a way to economically generate clean energy and provide some of it back to the market.

Byron, That is just out right injustice. What an atrocity of law that is.
I can see those folks just going off the grid completley then. Or do they still get a surcharge imposed on them?
Im betting that law gets overturned in court. Sounds like some politians getting some grease slapped in there palms.

Look, if you do not understand that "energy production is a fixed cost" and what this implies then you are never going to understand what I'm trying to say here.

Maybe I should start an "Economics 101" thread?

Simonator: From your perspective, net metering pays off for you. What a great deal you're getting. You feel good because it's green energy and your electric bill is lower. What you fail to understand is where that money is coming from that's purchasing your excess.

anniet: As someone who tries to conserve energy and as someone who says they don't mind paying for excess electricity from your neighbor's wind/solar farm is basically saying you don't mind paying *more* for the electricity you use.

Let me put it this way:

Electric company: *fixed cost*--they are going to bill you for the cost of production--this is why there is basically a minimum amount they charge you, or a high cost for the first few KWHs. And then once you reach the minimum required for the power company to stay in business, the rate drops.

Person who buys wind/solar system and produces excess electricity: gets paid for excess electricity placed on the grid

Person who can't afford to buy wind/solar: pays electric company the same *FIXED* amount *AND* for the excess electricity produced by next door neighbor with wind/solar.

Now, some of you think the easy answer is for the electric company to just vary the production of electricity based on demand. But it's just not easy. There's no big reostat that they can turn up and turn down at a moment's notice. Usually, a power production company can step up or step down production, but usually in very large steps. And the amount of coal used to produce the steam required doesn't change that much. And the cost to start up and shut down coal fired steam turbines is not something that can be done at the flick of a switch. And the number of employees to run a power production company cannot be varied with demand of electricity. So, *fixed cost* means a cost that doesn't change more than a few percent. Figure out a way to vary supply with demand and we'll burn less fossil fuels producing electricity.

So, in effect, if you still think it's fair that those who can afford wind/solar farms get paid for the electricity they place on the grid, then you're just supporting and adding to the income inequality that is becoming so popular for liberals to chant about these days. Those who can't afford pay those who can afford; thus, making the rich richer and the poor poorer--making the rich richer on the backs of the poor.

Look, if you do not understand that "energy production is a fixed cost" and what this implies then you are never going to understand what I'm trying to say here.

But it seems like they slit there own throats by not reinvesting in there own damn company for the sake of corporate greed.
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But it seems like they slit there own throats by not reinvesting in there own damn company for the sake of corporate greed.
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I lay all of this off to the Harvard Business school which touts quarter over quarter profits instead of a proper look at the overall state of a corporation. Their simulations allowed reducing inventory, finished goods to sell, plant, equipment and employees to make the books look good.

I attended an IBM-sponsored training session where they brought these clowns in to run the business simulation. I was appalled to see how they measured success. Not the way I would run my business.